


Kirlin Starfire

by Serriya (Keolah)



Category: Changeling: the Dreaming, Dungeons & Dragons (Roleplaying Game), Werewolf: The Apocalypse
Genre: Abandoned Work - Unfinished and Discontinued, Alternate Universe, Drama, Fire, Gen, Humor, Shapeshifting
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2002-01-01
Updated: 2002-01-01
Packaged: 2017-11-14 04:56:07
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,709
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/511546
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Keolah/pseuds/Serriya
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>A man finds a very peculiar foundling.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Kirlin Starfire

The revolving glass door spun and a man wearing a suit strode out. He walked out to the curb and climbed in a sleek black car and started up the engine. With a flick of his mind, he turned on the radio and sat back as the soft classical music filled the car, and he drove off.

Chuckling to himself, the windows seemed to roll down of their own volition. After he was a couple blocks away from the building, the dials on the radio turned, and a more upbeat music cascaded out of the speakers. Laughing aloud and singing along, the man sped off down the street.

"The wizard sidled up to the bar and he  
slapped down a coin and he ordered a mead.  
He saw a pretty girl, she was lookin' at him so he  
took her out back, and he--"

His singing was cut off by the screeching sound of a car swerving out of control. Snapping out of his distraction, he spun the steering wheel around, veering out of the way of an erratic red car. The little red car narrowly missed him, and collided with a lamp post before bursting into flames.

The man parked his car several meters away from the accident, and stepped out. "Sheeit," he murmured, staring at the flaming vehicle. He ran up to the car to see if anyone was still alive. A young woman was in the passenger seat, screaming. The driver was dead. She was struggling, but she couldn't get her seatbelt off or open the warped door. Telekinetically, he pulled off the seatbelt and forced the door open, pulling her coughing out of the burning car.

"Are you alright, Miss?" he asked as he dragged her away from the smoking wreckage. The sound of sirens could be heard in the distance.

She nodded hesitantly, looking back nervously at the red car as flames consumed it. The sirens grew louder as the Protectors arrived on the scene moments later. They brought out hoses and extinguished the fire, and one of them walked up to question the man and the young woman standing nearby.

"Could you tell me your names, please, and your involvement in this incident?" he said, adjusting his glasses as he pulled out a clipboard.

The man brushed off his suit. "Zaldan K'seel."

"He saved my life," the woman murmured, trembling.

"And your name, Miss?"

"Rina," she said quietly. "Rina Veldarin."

Zaldan blinked for a moment. The Protector said, "The President's daughter? Oh dear. Please come this way, we'll take you home." He led her off into a Protector scout car. She glanced back at Zaldan for a moment and got in.

"Well," Zaldan said to himself, standing alone amidst milling Protectors and still-smoking wreckage. "That's certainly an interesting way to start a day."

Unconsciously brushing off his suit again, he got back in his car and drove off.

* * *

Zaldan parked his car in the parking garage next to the office building and got out. From behind a garbage can, a small black kitten looked out. It woke upon hearing his car door slam, and perked up its ears in his direction. The cat ran up to him and rubbed against his leg.

"Well, hello there, kitty," the wizard said in amusement, bending down to scoop up the kitten. He scratched it behind the ear and looked down into two bright silvery eyes. "So what are you, a werecat? A mutant? A changeling?"

"Mew," the kitten said unhelpfully.

Zaldan just sighed and grumbled a bit. He sat the cat down on the pavement and started walking toward the office building. The kitten followed on his heels, keeping pace easily with its small legs. The man stopped for a moment and glanced back at it, sighing again.

"Fine," he muttered. "I suppose you aren't going to let me be anyway. Just stay out of the way, okay?"

He went inside and stepped into the elevator, the kitten following him all the way. At the 23rd floor, the elevator stopped, and Zaldan and the cat got out and walked down the hallway.

"Morning, Zaldan," greeted the receptionist, a pretty young half-elf. "I see you've got a friend."

Zaldan grunted and went to his desk. "Why do I get the feeling this day isn't going to be getting any better?"

He sat down and tried to do some paperwork. There was always more work to be done. Even using his mental abilities to sort papers and organize things did not make him feel like little more than a mindless drone. Sighing, he gave up trying to dig through the neverending pile of paperwork and stood up to get some coffee. Then he saw a little girl sitting in front of his desk. She looked to be maybe five years old, and had black hair and shining silvery eyes.

"You again," he smirked, leaning down. "What's your name, girl?"

"Kirlin," she grinned at him.

"Well, just stay out of trouble, okay?"

She nodded emphatically, curling her knees up to her chest and playing with a little doll. Zaldan went out and poured himself a cup of coffee. He rubbed his temples for a moment, as if to ward off the developing headache. Heading back into his office, he saw the girl was sitting on his desk and making paper clothing for her doll with his work. Yelling aloud, he dropped his coffee on the floor and picked her up off the desk. He managed to bite off any swear words in front of the child, barely.

"What are you doing, Kirlin? You've ruined a week's worth of work!"

"I'm sorry," she said sheepishly.

Zaldan sighed loudly, and slumped back in his chair. Fumbling around in his pockets, he pulled out a cigarette and a lighter, and nervously lit it. "Oh crap," he murmured as he remembered the coffee. He went over and tried to clean it up, sighing. "This just isn't my day."

From in front of the desk, Kirlin stared up at him wide-eyed. Zaldan sat the cigarette down in an ashtray on the desk and went outside with the empty coffee cup to find a mop or something. When he came back in, however, he shrieked as he saw his desk was on fire, and probably would have uttered a stream of obscenities were he not too surprised to speak coherently. He tried to put out the fire with the mop, and failed miserably, if anything only making it worse. Grabbing the girl, he rushed outside and pulled the nearest fire alarm.

"I'm not even going to ask what you did this time," he sighed.

"I didn't mean to," she said innocently.

Zaldan decided it was a good time to leave the immediate vicinity, and took the girl to an elevator. By the time they reached the lobby, a Protector fire control vehicle had arrived on the scene. A familiar-looking Protector came up to him and said, "Didn't I see you--"

"Yeah, you did. Don't ask. I don't know, either."

He passed by the Protectors who were heading to the 23rd floor and went out to the parking garage, grumbling all the way. Heading out to the space where he parked his car, he became quite aware of the blatantly empty place where his car should be.

"Don't tell me. My car was stolen too. Can anything else go wrong today? It's not even noon yet." The little girl peered around, clinging wide-eyed to his hand. "You got a home, kid? Family? Anyone that might sue me for kidnapping or something?" She stared at him blankly.

"I'm hungry," she whimpered.

"Fine, let's get you something to eat." Sighing, Zaldan headed out to the street. Walking a block away from the office, he stepped into the nearest restaurant. It was a nauseatingly cheerful place with a huge smiling logo above the doorway. He stepped up to the register and stared at the happy, friendly menu.

"Welcome to Happy Burger. May I take your order?" smiled the happy, smiling cashier.

"I'd like two happy burgers, a small happy cola, and a cup of happy coffee, please."

"Thank you. That will be $4.37."

Zaldan pulled a five dollar bill out of his pocket and shoved it at the cashier. "Keep the change."

"I'm sorry, I can't do that."

"Why not?"

She smiled at him. "It goes against our regulations. It would throw all of our books off. One small infraction here, would become an ever-increasing storm of pure chaos, that will never cease until it envelops the entire company, driving us down into the oblivion of Silly Burgers!"

"Well, gee," he mumbled, "I didn't realize it was so cataclysmic."

The cashier proceeded to count out his change, all the while smiling. "Oh dear," she said. "I don't have enough pennies."

"You could just keep the change," he said wryly.

"Never," she declared, and headed into the back room to search for pennies.

"Maybe I should have stuck with the fire," Zaldan commented dryly to no one in particular.

Suddenly, flames burst out of the kitchen. Screaming cooks could be heard, and in the midst of it all, the little girl ran out. He hadn't noticed her wander off, and apparently nobody else did either. Grabbing the girl's arm so she couldn't run off again, he pulled the fire alarm and tried to calm the patrons. Moments later, the Protectors arrived on the scene.

"You again."

"Yeah. I know. This is getting to be a habit," Zaldan smirked.

"You wouldn't happen to have rampant pyrokinetic powers, would you?"

"Not I," he grunted. But then he looked down at the girl suspiciously. She clung to him fearfully.

"Is this your daughter?"

"I don't understand it," Zaldan said. "This has never happened before."

"This must be difficult for you, sir," the man with glasses said. "But I must ask you to take your daughter outside the city limits until she can control her abilities, for safety reasons."

"Well, I'd do that, except for the fact that my car was stolen, too."

"Very well, I'll send you in a scout car. Please give me a description of your vehicle and I'll begin a search for it immediately," the Protector told him.

Zaldan sighed, and described his beautiful, expensive black car. When he was finished, the scout car arrived outside, and he and Kirlin got inside. "I hope you don't take offense at this," he told the Protector, "But I hope to never see you again."

The man merely chuckled and said, "That sentiment I can understand. Good luck to you."

As the scout car drove off and headed for the city limits, Zaldan silently hoped that nothing else went wrong today. And that they didn't figure out that Kirlin wasn't really his daughter.

* * *

Thankfully, they arrived at Zaldan's summer cabin in the woods without further incident. The scout car dropped them off, promising that they would bring his car here should they locate it, and sped off back to the city. Zaldan had his doubts that anything would go right, but nonetheless thanked them and headed inside.

"I don't see what their logic on this is," he said to himself, "You could start a forest fire or something and burn down the entire park." Kirlin looked up at him innocently. Zaldan sighed again. "And we never did get that meal. Sorry, I don't have any foodstuffs out here at the moment."

Zaldan scoured the kitchen to see if he happened to leave anything here from his last vacation, but did not manage to find anything still edible. After disposing of something that may have once been food, he went and sat down in a comfortable chair in the living room. He looked over the girl, her hair black as a raven's wing, her silver eyes innocent and young. Pondering for a moment, he reached down and pulled the hair away from her ears, and found them pointed as those of an elf. Zaldan sat back in his chair.

"So," he mused. "You're an elf. And a shapeshifter. And a pyrokinetic. Any other surprises you've got for me, kid?"

Kirlin sat down in the corner and played with her doll. Zaldan sighed again, and considered just crawling into bed and hoping things would be better when he woke up. Grumbling to himself, he went over to the phone and dialed up a pizza place, and ordered a large pepperoni pizza delivered.

"You want it delivered way out there?" said the woman on the phone.

"Yeah, I know its a bit far out," Zaldan sighed.

"That's going to cost extra."

"Yeah. That's fine," he grunted. "Thank you." He put down the phone. "Lunch is on the way, Kirlin." He mused for a moment. "Although, by the time it gets here, it will probably be dinner."

Kirlin giggled and danced her doll at him. Zaldan smirked, and picked up the phone again calling in to his office letting them know he was taking paternity leave. The confused woman on the other end of the phone line didn't even bother asking, and affirmed him.

"Alright, girl," he said, sitting down in front of Kirlin. "You're going to have to help me with this. I can't make you control your abilities on my own. I'm just a telekinetic, and not a particularly good one at that. But I'll do what I can."

"We're going to play a game?" the girl asked him.

"Yeah, sure. A game," Zaldan mumbled. "Tell me, what kinds of nifty tricks do you know?"

"Well," Kirlin said. "I can wiggle my ears." She proceeded to wiggle her elvish ears.

"I meant magical tricks," he said in frustration. "Like your shapeshifting and fire powers."

"Oooh," the girl giggled. "I can turn into all sorts of stuff."

The girl proceeded to change into a kitten, a bird, a puppy, then a small filly, each of them with black fur and the same shining silver eyes.

"That's great," said Zaldan. "But could you please not turn into a horse in the house?"

The filly whinnied, and turned back into a girl. "Sorry," she giggled.

"Alright, you can do that just fine," he pondered. "Any other tricks like that that you know of?" Kirlin shrugged and danced her doll around a bit more. "For that matter, where did you get that doll? When I met you, you were a kitten, and certainly not carrying anything." He scratched his head.

"It changes with me," she said, "Like my clothes."

"I see," Zaldan said. "Thank you for being so helpful." She smiled. "What else can you tell me?"

"I like cheese," Kirlin announced.

"Right..." he murmured. Idly, he pulled out a phone book and started leafing through the pages.

A bit later, the doorbell rang. It was the pizza. "That'll be $43.87," said the delivery boy.

Zaldan shoved a fifty at him. "Keep the change."

The boy shrugged and handed him the pizza box, which was almost so large it didn't fit in the door. "Thank you very much, sir," the delivery boy said, and left.

Zaldan went over and brought the girl to the kitchen and gave her a piece of pizza. She must have been very hungry, as she ate three whole pieces. The man stared incredulously at the little girl and wondered where they disappeared to as he nibbled on his own slice. When they finished, he put the rest in the fridge, washed his hands, and went back to the phone book.

"Alright, let's see if we can't find some help for you, kid," he thumbed through the book again. "Here we go, Children's Magic Tutors, ages three to twelve. This should be just what you need." He dialed up the number. "Yes, is this Children's Magic Tutors? Yes, yes, I've got a five-year-old pyrokinetic here, she needs training as soon as possible. Yes. Thank you. Here's my address."

"I'm tired," Kirlin said.

"Yeah, okay," Zaldan chuckled. "I've got a tutor coming for you tomorrow. Be sure to be on your best behavior." He led her off to the small guest bedroom. "Sleep well." He closed the door and sighed, heading to the main bedroom. "How did I get myself into this situation, anyway?"


End file.
